By Sami Zaptia.
London, 29 November 2020:
Members of Libya’s split parliament, the House of Representatives (HoR), meeting in an unofficial consultative meeting in Tangiers since last Monday, confirmed yesterday that they had agreed that the main seat of the HoR would be the city of Benghazi and that they will hold a meeting in the city of Ghadames as soon as they return to Libya.
It will be recalled that the HoR split in May 2019 after Khalifa Hafter launched a failed 14-month attack on Tripoli in April 2019.
In yesterday’s closing statement the members confirmed that members supported holding presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible, stressing that they would approve in Ghadames everything that would end the division in the HoR.
They stressed that they are moving towards ending the state of conflict and division in all institutions and preserving the entity and sovereignty of the state, and that they will deal positively with all outputs of the UNSMIL-brokered dialogue tracks in accordance with the 2011 Transitional Constitutional Declaration and the Skhirat Libyan Political Agreement.
The members appreciated the positive steps achieved through the 5 + 5 Joint Military Committee, and the necessity of commitment to conducting presidential and parliamentary elections in accordance with a constitutional framework and ending the transitional phase as soon as possible, provided that it does not exceed a year from the date of the assembly.
The final statement of the deputies emphasized the need to respect the Transitional Constitutional Declaration and the legitimacy of the bodies emanating from it and the importance of adhering to the provisions of paragraphs 25/28 of the executive formula of Security Council Resolution No. 2510 regarding the role of the HoR and not creating a parallel body.
The final statement stressed the necessity of rejecting hate speech and calling on all media outlets to uphold the discourse of reconciliation and tolerance and pushing the path of national reconciliation, the safe return of the displaced and the forcibly displaced, and reparation.
